Cool foods for the warm months

[umisquirrel]

I'm looking for cookbooks (or other sources) that have a lot of cool salads or other recipes that don't involve a lot of cooking with heat. I'm not trying to go all raw foods, but want to minimize heat production as it gets hotter (in my small NYC apartment). Also, the more vegetables, the better!

Some ideas I have so far...

- summer rolls
- cabbage salad (made this the other day with lots of fresh ginger, scallions, soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, lime juice)
- Mark Bittman's NYT list from last summer http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/din...

Please let me know if you know of any good cookbooks or have any great ideas yourself.

Thanks!

[egging]

I've been getting some great ideas from Smitten Kitchen (I'm going to try her cold peanut sesame noodles tonight).
http://smittenkitchen.com/

[southernitalian]

I'll add that I tend to use a lot of cilantro and chilis in the warmer months, for obvious reasons. The gazpacho recipe I'm going to try this weekend calls for both.

[umisquirrel]

Can you tell me the recipe? That sounds really good.

Also thanks everyone so far!

[southernitalian]

Here's the recipe. It calls for blending all but the tomatoes but I usually blend them too and add more jalapenos (and leave some seeds in) if I have them lying around. I usally add more cilantro as a garnish:

3 1/2 cups (or more) tomato juice - I use V8 Low Sodium (sorry jfood)
8 plum tomatoes (about 18 ounces), seeded, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 English hothouse cucumber, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 7 ounces)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (lime works well too)
1 green onion, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons minced seeded jalapeño chili
2 garlic cloves, minced

[southernitalian]

My 1:00 cancelled on me and my craving for gazpacho got to me. I went to the store and got (most of) what I was missing to make this. I used roma tomatoes because they looked better. I used a regular cucumber because they looked beautiful and were on sale and I'm not crazy about the English ones. I forgot to get a bell pepper. I used a large red onion and a lot more cilantro than was called for because I'm growing it this year and I have a ton of it. I put two whole jalapenos in and that might have been too much but I love them! And I squeezed two large limes in it. I put it all in the blender in batches and kept in kind of chunky. Salt and pepper, in the fridge for a few hours. Garnish with a lime wedge and more...clinatro. Would it be so wrong to add a splash of vodka?

[linguafood]

I wish we were anywhere near warm.... but when it does get hot, nothing beats a good caprese salad: good tomatoes (hard to find), buffalo mozzarella, a good olive oil, some basil chiffonade, and ground pepper & sea salt. Tastes like summer to me '-)

[misterkot]

Tuna Salad Sandwiches:

Mister Kot's Tuna Salad

Two or three cans of tuna (you can use whatever kind you want. I'm in China at the moment so I use something that is similar to chunk light in water)

A nice sized glob of mayo

two to four dill pickles chopped into tiny pieces (homemade are great, but use what you can get)

half a medium onion finely minced

one small fresh tomato finely minced

a few tiny green onions also minced

a handful of fresh cilantro/fresh dill/fresh parsely (whatever fresh herbs you got) also finely minced

squeeze 3/4 of a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

mix all that stuff together until it's well mixed, but not slurry... still chunky

put it on some toast open faced or serve it up with a good sized bit of your favorite greens for a crispy cool sandwich

[boyzoma]

Tuna Salad is good. But you can also do the same with Chicken Salad. Change the tuna for Chicken (shortcut to not heat the kitchen - pick up a roasted chicken at your local stupid market). Substitute frozen peas for the pickles and add some diced celery for some crispness.

Also, a layered salad is good. You make this a day ahead. I start with layering iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced green onions, diced red peppers, diced water chestnuts, diced celery then frozen peas. Spread top with a thin layer of mayo, sprinkle with a layer of parmesan cheese and sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Cover and refrigerate over night. Mix just before serving. It is a really refreshing crispy salad.

[ladyberd]

I have a book called raising the salad bar that I use a lot every summer. there are loads of different salads in it that use the season's best ingredients - and they're not all boring green salads. There's one with corn and shrimp I love, another with edamame that's a great easy lunch. The book is available on Amazon and the author is Catherine Walthers

Cheers,
Ladyberd
http://ladyberds-kitchen.blogspot.com

[southernitalian]

Schav and gazpacho.